Helene Young's Blog

How does the world move forward from what feels like a descent into extreme tribalism with no room for anyone else’s opinion?

Social media was originally a way to connect people and, like many others, I’ve enjoyed connecting with like-minded people, readers, old school and work mates, distant family, and friends.

But I’m not sure it’s proving to be so social any more. I scroll through page after page of comments that are rude, cruel and self opinionated, with moderators working hard (bless them) in an attempt to keep posts civil. It seems to me that if you have to tell someone to their face that you have a different opinion it’s either not going to happen or it at least won’t involve shouting…

Yet, armed with a keyboard or a phone or tablet screen, keyboard warriors seem to think it’s okay to be abusive and sarcastic and snide. The comments, complete with emojis, multiple exclamation marks, and bullying pressure to support one’s world view, are as loud as a screaming match.

What does all that achieve? I would humbly suggest nothing but angst can come of it. Angst for the original poster, angst for the commenter and angst for anyone scrolling through.

Life is too darned short for all that anger. None of us know what tomorrow will bring, but I doubt  all that angst is going to change the world for the better. I know I’m fortunate to have a lifestyle that allows me to switch off at times. On a night when the Milky Way looked to be within touching distance and the mighty Aurora Australis lit up the sky I was reminded how tiny we humans are in this vast expanse. Surely, surely, we can accept and embrace our diversity, our quirks and our right to hold different opinions.

Breathe, breathe deeply, and be glad we are alive in a world full of beauty if we can step away from the keyboards and the screens and just appreciate it.

 

 

It’s a pleasant 20 degrees Celsius in Shoal Bay, off Tasmania’s east coast. The northerly wind’s being deflected over Bishop and Clerk, the main peaks on Maria Island and Roobi is bobbing gently at anchor in the clear water.

We’re celebrating our 37th wedding anniversary today (40 years together, but three of those were the ‘try before you buy’ component). We started the day with a walk through the isthmus and onto stunning Reidel Beach. With only a couple of pied oyster catchers for company it was easy to pretend it was our own private beach. It doesn’t get more romantic than a long walk hand-in-hand with Capt G. (When he gathered, and carefully washed, all the shells to decorate my sand drawing I got a little misty eyed.)

This sailing life can be crazy busy, but I’m grateful that we have the time to slow travel. It’s easy to fall into the trap of moving on to find the next beach, the next view, the next cute little town. I wonder sometimes if social media exacerbates this as we’re all looking for new pictures, new experiences to fill our feeds. There’s so much to be found if we look a little closer, soak up the ambience, appreciate the beauty around us. ‘Smell the roses’ as the saying goes!

As I type this post the smell of fresh baked bread surrounds me and I’m reminded again that love doesn’t need grand gestures. It comes in the little moments, the considerations, the compromises, and in giving back.

We can never say ‘I love you’ too many times.

I’m flexing my fingers over the keyboard and feeling a little rusty at this, but it’s time to restart the blog.

Since my last post life has been a mix of busy, frantic, hurry up and wait, idle dreaming and just getting on with life – cruising sailing is also known as ‘maintenance in exotic locations’ and I can assure you that is correct! There’s always something to fix on a boat…

I’ve missed the writing, but there’s been so much more to do away from the keyboard. My love of photography has allowed me to fill my social media feeds with images of the beautiful places we’re privileged to visit.

But it’s time to re-engage the writing brain and see what’s in there. Covid left me with some health issues to work through and brain fog was one of those. I’d love to borrow a line out of that wonderful Johnny Nash song and sing ‘I can see clearly now’, but I’m not quite there yet! However, I’m hopeful that my love of words will help restore some of those patchy areas of vocabulary.

I’m grateful the characters in my latest, and much neglected, work in progress have been patient. They’ve understood their time will come and they’ve continued to talk amongst themselves, and invade my dreams from time to time to remind me that they haven’t forgotten me either.

I’m also incredibly grateful to a couple of fellow writers who’ve made me commit to producing something before our next on-line catch up at the end of February. Living aboard the boat full time means I miss the ‘in person’ writing community. The monthly catch ups with Annabelle and Margareta are wonderful and a great reminder that while writing can be solitary it doesn’t need to be lonely.

So here I am, snugly moored in Eden on the south east coast of New South Wales. The weather forecast is looking promising for an early departure on Saturday for a two to three day sail to Tasmania’s east coast. I’ve taken this first plunge and dived back into this blog. Now I need to dive back into my current manuscript.

Wish me luck!

 

2018 whipped past at an alarming rate and here we are in 2019 already!!

To celebrate the new year the wonderful people at Australian Romance Readers Association are providing a ticket for me to giveaway so one lucky reader can attend A ROMANTIC RENDEZVOUS in Brisbane 23 rd March, 2019!

Come and join special guest Sherrilyn Kenyon and Celeste Bradley, along with a host of Australian authors, as we celebrate life, love and all things romantic.

Click on the link to enter and good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The winner will be drawn on 14th February and announced here.

I’m putting the finishing touches to my latest newsletter so if you haven’t already subscribed sign up now for all the news and more giveaways.

We’re getting ready to head to the UK for a four week visit to family and friends – and for a very special wedding – so it’s time to announce the winner of the sunrise canvas giveaway.

Congratulations to Justine Porter!! The painting will be heading her way shortly and I hope she enjoys it!

 

I’m also absolutely delighted to announce that RETURN TO ROSEGLEN will be released in time for Christmas as an audio book. A very big thank you to the Penguin Books Australia team, Curtis Brown Australia, and Wavesound Australia for giving Ivy and her girls a voice. This will be the first audio book for me and I hope there are many more to come.

I’ll do my best to post some blogs while we’re away but meanwhile follow our overseas adventure on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter!

Happy reading

Helene

You know how much I love taking photos of sunsets and sunrises. (Capt G believes I may be a tad obsessed… he may have a point…) And many of you are kind enough to say I should do a coffee table book – which I may do for Christmas giveaways – but I thought I’d do something a little different to celebrate Return to Roseglen. I’ve had one of my very favourite photos from Limeburner Bay turned into a block canvas print, which I think would look lovely on a wall – of course I’m very biased! (I should also clarify that Capt G is NOT included in the prize

 

So how do you enter the draw?  
*****Sign up for my newsletter!*****

You’re already signed up? Thank you for being part of my writing world – your name will have two entries in Capt G’s hat.

There will be more ways to enter on my social media pages as well so feel free to share and tag me and I’ll keep adding your name into the draw each time you do that.

If you’d like to leave a review on Goodreads, Amazon or iBooks then your name will go into the hat with a gold star attached and there will be a bonus prize if you’re the winner. You’ve already done that, I hear you say? Excellent! You’ll automatically qualify for a chance at the bonus prize.

The competition will run from 20th September to 6 pm Sunday 26th September. Capt G will draw the winner and I’ll publish the winner’s name back here on this post.

Have you ever felt like curling into a ball and hiding in the corner because life’s just run you down? Have you reached for a book instead of giving in to that urge because you know a story will take you away to a mystical place where life delivers rainbows and love, heartache and happiness, and runs other people down instead of you?

I know I’ve used stories many times to escape the real world. And stories have taught me about love, friendship, loss, grief, adventure, hate, beauty, family, life, and the wide, wide world out there. As a voracious reader I roam across genres. I devoured sic-fi when I was younger, spy and war stories as I hit my twenties, and romance and family stories have always had a place on my shelf. Right now I’m alternating between Kylie Scott’s sassy, sexy romances, Trent Dalton’s darkly humorous story of life growing up in Brisbane, Sarah Bailey’s gritty crime stories, Barbara Hannay’s beautifully crafted rural love stories and Sally Hepworth’s lyrical tale of dementia. All of them allow me to visit a different time and place and meet characters who bring a whole new perspective to life.

Today I heard from a friend about a friend of theirs who’d suffered a great loss twelve months ago. My friend had loaned her Return to Roseglen. Her friend may well have only picked it up  to keep our mutual friend happy. But magic happened and she found herself engrossed in the story not wanting to put it down. In her words ‘Thoroughly enjoying it and best of all I’m back to reading which I haven’t done since…’

Stories have the power to heal, to give the soul time to mourn, settle and regenerate. There’s no price to be placed on the healing a story can bring. Like long lazy walks on the beach there’s no telling where the journey will take us. The peace can be profound.

There are days when I wonder why I write. Today is not one of those days.

 

Ever wondered what a plane crash feels like? It was all in a day’s work for multi-award-winning author and airline pilot, Helene Young.

As a check captain with Australia’s largest regional airline, QantasLink, her job was to ensure aircrew can handle all inflight emergencies. It came in handy for writing fast-paced suspense novels starring feisty women and sexy men.

The inspiration for her first novel began with a tragic discovery.  “Early one morning, walking our dog, I found a body washed up on Trinity Beach. While there was nothing sinister in that discovery, it planted the seed of an idea for a novel focusing on the terrorist threat to Australia. Working as a captain with Australia’s largest regional airline I fly with crews who have flown for the current Customs and Border Protection contractor. That made it easy to draw on their experiences and weave my characters through a realistic scenario.”

Helene books have won the Romance Writers of Australia Romantic Book of the Year Award in 2011 and 2012. She was also voted favourite romantic suspense author by the Australian Romance Readers Association in 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014 and 2015, and was shortlisted for the same award in 2012. Burning Lies was shortlisted for the 2013 Daphne du Maurier Award Mystery/Suspense in America.

Helene has just taken leave of absence from her role as a Regional Flying Manager with the airline. You’ll now find her sailing the Coral Sea with her husband aboard their catamaran, Roo Bin Esque. In between seeking new adventures she finds time to indulge her love of tropical gardens, cooking, and discovering new authors and their wonderful books.

Helene is available for speaking engagements, school visits or library chats. She conducts writing courses at Writers Festivals and on behalf of the Queensland Writers Centre. She also travels to book clubs and writing groups on request.

Contact her:

Via the “Contact’ tab on this website.

Or via her agent, Clare Forster, from Curtis Brown on 61 3 9388 8145 or email [email protected]

 

Her books:

WINGS OF FEAR(Border Watch), voted Romantic Book of the Year in 2011, is the first of her loosely linked trilogy focusing on the coastal surveillance operations round Australia.

SHATTERED SKY, the second book, which also won the Romantic Book of the Year 2012, is set in the world of the Outlawed Motorcycle gangs and organised crime. These first two books were also awarded the Favourite Romantic Suspense novels by the Australian Romance Readers Association in 2010 and 2011 respectively.

BURNING LIES, the final Border Watch book, was released in July 2012 by Penguin Australia. A passionate love story, it’s set on the Atherton Tablelands at the height of bushfire season.

Helene’s fourth novel, HALF MOON BAY, released 22nd May, 2103 was chosen as the June Book of the Month by The Get Reading team and Helene toured Australia talking to readers at libraries and community centres. Her story of a small town fighting a corrupt local government resonated strongly with readers. It was voted Favourite Romantic Suspense novel for 2013 by the Australian Romance Readers Association.

Helene’s fifth book, SAFE HARBOUR, released in April 2014. Set in the coastal hamlet of Banksia Cove this ‘friends to lovers’ story is set against a back drop of drugs in sport and international crime syndicates. The action starts on page one and doesn’t let up. It was also voted Favourite Romantic Suspense 2014 at the Australian Romance Readers Convention making it back to back wins for Helene’s stories.

NORTHERN HEAT released on 27th May, 2015. Set in Cooktown, with a cyclone bearing down on the coast, this is a redemption story with the awful consequences of domestic violence at its heart. Picking up from SAFE HARBOUR, almost twelve months on, we see Conor finally show his true colours. It took out the Favourite Romantic Suspense award in 2015 at the Australian Romance Readers’ Awards night.

 

Professional Aviation Qualifications

Regional Flying Manager, QantasLink, QLD

Check and Training Captain Dash 8 400

Airline Transport Pilot Licence

Grade One Multi-Engine IFR Flying Instructor

Civil Aviation Safety Authority Approved Testing Officer

 

Articles on Helene – Please  also see the other pages under Media

Profile Magazine, July 2012

The Age – Story written by Helene for the Melbourne Age 5/02/2011

Courier Mail March 2010 – Fiona Purdon

Herald Sun March 2010 -Fiona Purdon

Radio Interviews

612 ABC Radio Podcast, 2012

BBC World News 2011- Birmingham, Conventry and London. Live crosses during Cyclone Yasi

ABC Far North – 2010 Fiona Sewell

Community Radio Cairns  2010 and 2011 – Bev Blaauw

 

Interview with Loretta Ryan – Weekends on Brisbane ABC.

Interview starts at 1 hr – 09 minutes.

Click the link : Weekends ABC QLD

 

Thank you so much to everyone who posted photos of themselves reading RETURN TO ROSEGLEN on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, tagged their friends, liked my page, signed up for my newsletter and blog, sent me emails, messages and texts, and posted reviews online at Amazon, Goodreads and iBooks. This writing life it a whole lot less solitary when readers take my book to their hearts and take the time to contact me and share their thoughts and their stories.

The list of names that went into Capt G’s hat for draw was huge! I wish I had many many books to share with you all. But there can only be one winner…

And the lucky winner is Janet Ryan! The prize will be winging its way to you, Janet, next week once we arrive back aboard Roobinesque after our LOVE BETWEEN THE PAGES TOUR of SE Queensland.

Check out my EVENTS page for all the details of the tour and other upcoming events. I’m looking forward to spending the week with Christine Wells and Barbara Hannay, with Capt G playing porter, chauffeur and writer wrangler Penguin Books Australia Team for all their support. We’ll be sharing posts on Face Book, Twitter and Instagram so make sure you’re following us to keep up with all the news!